In recent years, the extensive application of transcriptome sequencing technology in the field of liver cancer has provided assistance in genomic and biological studies of liver cancer. Summarizing and analyzing the literature on RNA-seq applied to liver cancer research in the last two decades can help to provide researchers with a comprehensive understanding of the research hotspots and latest progress in this field, and provide reference for subsequent research.

To evaluate the application of RNA-seq in various aspects of liver cancer research, such as treatment, diagnosis, and pathogenesis as a whole by bibliometric analysis, so as to reveal the global distribution of research hotspots in the field of RNA-seq applied to liver cancer, and predict the development trend of this field in the future.

Web of Science database was searched for English literature related to the application of RNA-seq to liver cancer research from 2001 to 2022, and the number of publications was analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2016 software. CiteSpace software was used for visualization of authors, countries, institutions, and keywords.

A total of 1 397 documents on the application of RNA-seq to liver cancer research were retrieved in the database, and the analysis results showed that the core group of authors in this field had been formed; China has the largest number of publications, but the research depth is slightly lacking, the United States has the second largest number of publications after China, but with the highest centrality (0.44) ; most of the institutions with a high publication volume are located in China, and most of the institutions with greater influence are located in the United States; the keyword analysis showed that the research hotspots in the field include the molecular mechanism, gene expression and molecular markers related to the occurrence and development of liver cancer.

The molecular mechanism of liver cancer development, biomarkers and therapeutic targets of the disease are the current research hotspots in this field, and clinical precision medicine may be a key research direction in the future.

近年来，转录组测序技术（RNA-seq）在肝癌领域的大量应用为肝癌的基因组学和生物学研究提供了帮助，对近二十年RNA-seq应用于肝癌研究的文献进行总结分析，有助于研究者全面了解该领域的研究热点与最新进展，为后续研究提供参考。

通过文献计量学分析对RNA-seq在肝癌治疗、诊断、发生机制等各方面研究的应用情况进行整体评价，以揭示全球RNA-seq应用于肝癌领域研究热点的分布情况，进而推测未来该领域的发展趋势。

检索2001—2022年Web of Science数据库收录的RNA-seq应用于肝癌研究领域的英文文献，运用Microsoft Excel 2016软件对文献进行发文量分析，运用CiteSpace软件进行作者、国家、机构、关键词的可视化分析，使用发文量、中心性、聚类模块值和平均轮廓值等指标对可视化结果进行评价。

在数据库中检索到RNA-seq应用于肝癌研究领域的文献共1 397篇，分析结果显示，该领域的核心作者群已经形成；中国发文量最多，但研究深度略有欠缺，美国发文量仅次于中国，但中心性最高，为0.44；高发文量的机构大多分布在中国，影响力较大的机构大多分布在美国；关键词分析显示领域的研究热点为肝癌发生、发展相关的分子机制、基因表达及其分子标志物。

肝癌发生发展的分子机制、疾病的生物标志物和治疗靶点是该领域目前的研究热点，临床精准医疗可能成为未来的重点研究方向。